Service, the final frontier

A well-known managed pub company is trialling a value offer at a number of pubs. On my travels at the weekend I passed one of the new sites and thought I'd call in for a munch.

There was a lot to commend — and failings that you come across too often.

On the upside, there was good signage, excellent menu presentation with great use of photos, really competitive price points providing a strong sense of everyday value, smartly-dressed staff wearing well-designed staff uniforms.

But there were many areas where the pub could improve. The pub had relaunched just six weeks before my visit, yet was verging on the scruffy. The beer garden was full of cigarette butts, there were two torn-apart bin liners with rubbish spilling out of them left on the ground in the staff car park. There was a completely dead hanging basket by the front entrance next to one that was thriving. Staff consistently failed to clear glasses and plates despite walking straight past them empty-handed. A bottle of cleaning liquid (and tea towel) had been left forgotten on a table in front of the main bar — a customer had to move them out of the way.

There was a sense of some staff either under-trained or functioning on auto-pilot. There was no check-back after food was served. When I mentioned that I had been served cold vegetables as my waiter collected our plates, he said: "No worries — I'll tell the chef." (The same waiter had also earlier offered me a fork, holding the prongs between his fingers).

On the whole, here was a menu offering eye-catching value, but kitchen delivery and staff training (service and environment) still in need of a good deal of work. The price points are pitched so affordably that there will be plenty of people, I suspect, who will accept the shortcomings. They'll take the view that there is a limit to what can be expected in terms of service and environment when food at the pub is cheaper than can be bought from the supermarket and cooked at home.

On my visit, at around 5pm on a Saturday, there was a good-sized queue of people waiting to order their food.

But the pub industry knows that it has a huge competitive edge on price. The big win comes when staff can be motivated to make a personal difference, to use their charisma to deliver a memorable experience.

The problem at this pub certainly wasn't one of under-staffing. But the staff were, on the whole, very young and, let's face it, likely to be getting paid little more than the minimum wage. Consistently great service is the final frontier for the pub trade. There is virtually no less-than-perfect pub visit that can't be rescued by a member of staff who goes the extra mile.